Among Spies and Fools
by Bring Cub Back
Summary: Ian Rider believes he can come back into Alex's life after missing his fourteenth birthday and Christmas. Alex, however, thinks otherwise and believes that his uncle should get some revenge for not even giving his nephew one phone call. The man should've known Alex wasn't going to let it slip so easily. Oh boy was Ian Rider going to be in for it.


**Hello everybody, I'm hopeing after reading this and go and check out the profile. However when responding to the profile please use PM's. **

**This is before the death of Ian Rider but after Alex turns fourteen.**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider, the series belongs to Anthony Horowitz. Enjoy.** _

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To say that the fourteen year old Alex Rider wasn't mad was like saying that pigs despised the mud and spent most of their time taking bubbles baths. Complete and total lies. And what could've possibly been the reason for this anger that grasped Alex Rider but his own uncle, Ian Rider? Oh the elder man sure knew how to piss the child off with his long business trips and what not, it was near exhausting and practically a miracle for Alex to be able to keep up with anything and still help Jack take care of the house and all the

While worrying about his uncle and what injury he could come home with next from his… oversea business meeting.

Alex shook his head angrily as he made his bed, he was beginning to think that this business meeting thing was a lie, but what else could it possibly be? Well it didn't matter anymore as Alex stood up straight and glared out the window. His uncle was coming home from the hospital today and the man knew very well that Alex was mad at him considering the boy didn't go and visit Ian's one week stay at St. Dominic's.

For this Alex was also confused, St. Dominic's was generally for high up people with a lot of money and Alex didn't think that bankers made so much. Overseas or not.

Jack Starbright had tried to convince him to go and see his uncle but he point blank refused to, it wasn't that he hated his uncle and every fiber in the mans breathing body, it was just that Alex was mad and resented the fact that Ian Rider had promised Alex on December 13th that he would be back before his birthday two months after.

The date was March 31st.

Four months later.

So not only had the man missed Christmas, but had failed to keep up with his promise to Alex and return before his birthday. Alex had gotten no calls, no cards, nothing to show that the man was even alive anymore. Even in the hospital Ian still never called him!

"Bloody bastard…" Muttered Alex as he walked out of his room and made his way through the empty house. Jack was currently picking up Ian and returning him home from the hospital, and while she was away Alex was required to clean up any extra messes around the house. Not that there were any, Alex wasn't a neat freak, or neat at all relatively speaking, but he still liked things somewhat clean and ordinary.

Alex was sitting on the living room couch searching through the channels looking for something interesting to watch when the door opened to reveal a smiling red-headed American that was Jack and a tired worn yet smiling man on crutches which would be Ian Rider. Alex smiled a little at Jack then his smile faded as he looked at Ian and he haughtily turned back to his TV giving the man the cold shoulder. He heard Ian sigh but didn't think much of it.

"Err… Come on Ian; let me help you with your stuff." Jack said, sensing the tense atmosphere and grudge to boy held against his uncle. She grabbed Ian's bag and walked towards his room, with said man trailing behind her glancing back at his nephew who made no motion to greet him.

Walking into the room Ian sat down on his long missed bed and sighed once again as Jack closed the door behind her,

"You've gotten yourself in quite the situation this time Mr. Rider." Jack told him with a slight tease in her voice, yet being serious all the same.

Ian sighed, "Yeah Jack, I'm well aware thank you."

He was exhausted, his last mission had been much… harder… then initially intended. MI6 sent their regards and apologizes for 'overtime' but it wasn't like the small cheap cards meant anything to Ian, because no card could fix the grudge that his nephew held over him. Ian laid back into his bed and just wanted to curl up and fall asleep, but right now that wasn't an option with a fourteen year old steaming out in his living room.

"God Jack," Ian muttered into his hands. "What am I going to do?"

"I'm not his uncle Ian. You should know, maybe go apologize or something?" Jack suggested as she open up his suitcase and kicked it over so all its contents fell out and scattered onto the floor.

Ian scoffed, "You and I know very well how well that _won't _work. If he was so mad that he didn't even come to the hospital I highly doubt that an apology will fix it all up in a jiffy."

"Not a jiffy Ian no," Jack said pushing his underwear to the dirty clothes basket with her foot. "He's not young enough for apologizes anymore. But at least it could show that you care and you don't want him to be mad at you. It'll lighten the mood, not by much but still lighten."

Ian just sighed and shook his head, maybe with all the other nephews around the world but not his. Oh no, his had to be the difficult one.

Seeing this motion Jack stopped her undie travels and put her hand on her hips staring pointedly at the man, "You know Ian, he has every single right in the world to be mad at you! You missed Christmas and his birthday and not even one call Ian! Not _one_!"

"Jack don't you think that I already know this? I feel bad but I never had a chance to get to the phone. And if I did I wasn't aloud to make any personal calls. It was all strictly bank business."

In a matter of speaking, sure.

"What do you think he's going to do?" Ian asked hesitantly a few moments later.

Jack turned to him with a smirk, "Oh only god knows."

That was a lie actually.

Only Tom knows.

And the reason that only Tom Harris knows because only Tom would be able to come with the ridiculous and genius idea that could only be made by Tom.

"Oi!" Tom had called out to Alex in the middle of the school day as he was walking to maths.

"What?" Alex asked stopping and turning around to face his best friend who was currently sprinting towards the fair haired boy with a huge mischievous grin on his face.

"I have the best freaking idea EVER to get back at your uncle!" Tom practically shouted and tried to skid to a halt, but instead his skidded past Alex and fell to the floor. Tom, not caring, grabbed Alex's ankle and shook it as he spoke every syllable. "This. Is. My. Best. Plan. Yet!"

Alex held out his arms and laughed trying to keep balance, "Tom stop! I don't want to fall on my arse!"

"Screw your ass-"

"You know you want to"

"And-" The spiky hair fiend froze as he finally comprehended what Alex had just said. Then he made a face and quickly let go of his friends' ankle. "You're gross."

All Alex could do is smirk in response as Tom pushed himself off the ground and wiped what ever dust could be sitting on his shirt.

"But anyway!" Tom continued happily jumping to show his enthusiasm as if his voice didn't. "This plan is the best of plans and you have to agree with me that it is totally amazing and you will love me for it like you don't already do and it's just so great and-"

"Stop!" Alex shouted covering his friends' mouth with his hands, "Calm. Down."

In response Tom liked Alex's hand.

"Yuck." Alex muttered, shooting Tom a quick glare as he wiped his friends' salvia off his hand and onto Toms black jacket.

"Welcome."

"I don't even know what you're plan-"

"It's amazing."

"Yeah but-"

Alex was quickly silenced by Tom stepping behind him and putting a hand over his mouth before dragging him into the bathroom. Once inside, Tom locked the door and released the hold of his friend.

Alex wiped his mouth and glared, "What is this, rape?"

"Please!" Tom scoffed, "Don't be so ridiculous! … I wouldn't rape you in a school bathroom."

"The plan Tom…" Alex muttered as he rolled his eyes at his friends' antics.

Tom gave Alex a smirk that made his skin crawl and he leaned in and slowly whispered the plan into Alex's ear. After he finished Alex stood and looked at Tom with a look of, 'you're nuts. You belong in a nut house.'

"What!?" Alex shouted. "You want me to-"

"Shhhhh!" Tom interrupted in a whisper. "It's brilliant!"

"You're insane!"

"I know!"

And this was when Alex gave Tom the look, 'That's it; I'm checking you into the insane asylum.'

But sadly, or maybe not so sadly, as crazy as the plan had sounded it was indeed one of the most perfect plans that Alex had heard in a while. Oh boy was his uncle going to be in for it; maybe Ian Rider would soon learn not to leave his nephew without a phone call.

Ian Rider struggled into the kitchen, he hated crutches. He hated them so much that it was comical in a sort of demon demented way. But right now the crutches were not his main concern; the injured man was after one target and one target only.

Oreos.

He scanned the room rather quickly and found Alex and Tom both sitting at the little table in the kitchen with the packet of Oreos opened in front of them, both of them with about three or four in hand. Ian frowned at a thought,

His nephew didn't want to be around Ian, and surly the boy told his friend about his spat and to not talk with his uncle either. But the Oreos were in-between the both of them and the only way that Ian was going to get them is if he walked over and started a conversation. He had been away for four months on a grueling mission with hardly any food none the less sweets, and when he finally returned home to London the doctors would not let him have any cookies because of the reaction it may have with the anesthetic they had put him on.

Screw the argument. Ian Rider wanted his Oreos.

Ian finally made his way to the table with the two boys watching him with amused expressions. Ian just glared, the little trip had exhausted him but he let the glare fall and a small smile lighten his features,

"Hello boys." Ian said, acknowledging the two of them but his eyes were locked onto his nephews who quickly looked away from him and shared a glance with Tom. Ian sighed,

"Alex, look I'm…" Ian started until sighing again as his nephew just glared down at his Oreos. "I know this won't do anything to change your mind but I'm so sorry Alex. I love you with all that I own and I hated missing your birthday and Christmas but I didn't have a choice. I wanted to call you so badly, to tell you that I was okay and ask you how school was and wish you happy birthday but my boss wouldn't let me. I'm not asking for your forgiveness Alex I'm just asking for you to talk to me again. I've been gone for four months and still my nephew doesn't say a word and just gives me glares. I'm so so very sorry Alex just please, say something."

Ian finished and gave a shaky sigh as Alex looked up at him and Tom looked over at Alex now looking rather anxious.

"Fine." Alex said looking Ian up and down. "I'll talk to you and stop giving you nasty looks because you're still my uncle. But I don't forgive you."

Ian smiled and nodded and pulled his nephew into a hug and kissed him on the top of his head,

"God I missed you so much kiddo…" Ian muttered into Alex's hair.

Alex felt guilty as he pulled away from his uncles' hug. Now that the man had apologized and showed how guilty hefelt about leaving Alex out in the dark, Alex felt as if they shouldn't go through with Toms plan.

"Now," Ian said standing up straight with a smile on his face. It was more then obvious that Alex talking to him had taken a lot of stress off his shoulders, "You better hand over those Oreos." He leaned down and picked up a few in his hand. Alex tensed and shared a glance with Tom who was looking really excited watching the elder Riders movement with his eyes. Ian was about to take a bite out of his Oreo when Alex quickly stood up,

"Ian stop!"

Ian froze, "What?"

Tom stood to his glare on Alex,

"What are you doing?" He hissed. "You're ruining the plan!"

"I don't give a damn about that plan anymore Tom; I'm not forcing my uncle to eat toothpaste!"

"Alex!" Tom shouted and he plopped back into the chair,

Ian looked confused the Oreo still halfway into his mouth and he slowly pulled it out, "Plan? What plan? What's this about toothpaste?"

Alex sighed at his uncle and sat down himself ignoring Tom who was giving him mean looks. He understood though, Tom wanted to see the reaction of his prank and Alex had promised him he could and Alex broke his promise to Tom and stopped the prank.

"We replaced the cream with toothpaste in the Oreos."

Ian gave the Oreo he had almost placed in his mouth a nasty look and quickly threw it into the trashcan; he looked very disappointed, sad that he didn't get to enjoy his Oreos. Then his saddened gaze turned to Alex,

"Why would you do that Blondie?" Ian asked.

"Because I was tired of you always gone and leaving me in the dark Ian! It bothers me that you can't even tell me what your business trips are even about and then you missed my birthday breaking your promise in the process so Tom and I decided to play this prank on you and then you apologized and made me feel guilty so I stopped it!" Alex said rather quickly looking down at his hands again.

"Damn you Riders and you're good morals." Tom muttered.

Ian glanced in Tom's direction and smirked then put a hand on Alex's head and played with the strands of his hair, "It's alright kiddo I understand, well if you want to know one thing about the trip I could tell you that I went to Iraq. That's why it took so long to get back Alex; we were slightly caught up in the war."

That wasn't a total lie and Ian congratulated himself for being able to tell Alex something without breaking any rules and making the boy sign the OSA. Alex smiled up at him and Ian smiled back but all Tom did was scoff and roll his eyes at Alex,

"Well," said the black haired boy. "While we are all confessing something here to one another, which is really sweet mind you, why don't we have Alex tell you what he did last month?"

Alex paled drastically and gave his friend an evil look, "Tom! Why on earth would you say anything! You promised you'd keep your mouth shut!"

"Sucks when promises are broken doesn't it." Quipped Tom.

"Alex," Ian said hesitantly. "What did you do?"

"Nothing Ian."

"Oh sure it was nothing." Came the ever so sarcastic comment.

"Tom! Shut! Up!"

"Alex what did you do?" Ian persisted putting his hands on the arms of Alex's chair pinning the boy. He wasn't being scary but the way his nephew was acting it was obviously something bad.

"You may want to sit down for this one Mr. Rider" Tom said with a smirk and something evil sparkled in his eyes.

"What? Why?" Ian asked turning to face Tom.

"Because I got my girlfriend pregnant." Alex muttered darkly.

Ian's head snapped forcefully back to Alex and Alex swore the man might have gotten whiplash.

"YOU DID WHAT!?" Ian roared loudly into Alex's face causing Alex to shrink back scared into his chair. His uncle had never shown this much anger before, especially this close to his nephew. The man looked like he was about to hit Alex as Ian glared at him his face red and his eyes furious. Alex was terrified at this point.

"ALEXANDER JOHNATHAN RIDER OUT OF ALL THE PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD YOU ARE THE LAST ONE I THOUGHT WHO WOULD EVER, EVER! HAVE SEX AT THIS YOUNG AGE AND WITHOUT PROTECTION AS WELL! AND WHERE WAS JACK THROUGH ALL OF THIS AND WHEN ON EARTH DID YOU GET A GIRLFRIEND BECAUSE YOU SURE AS HELL DIDN'T HAVE ONE WHEN I LEFT! ALEXANDER RIDER ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!?" The man screamed into Alex's face.

Even Tom paled and shrank back and he wasn't even the one getting yelled at, the man was about to have a heart attack as he continued to yell at his nephew. Tom shared a quick glance with Alex and that's when he realized that this was enough.

"Mr. Rider please!" Tom shouted.

Ian leaned back and turned his angry gaze to the black haired boy, "What?" The man snarled. "Were you in on it to?"

"No. Just that you're scaring the living day lights out of your only nephew." Tom said hesitantly.

"Well he bloody fucking deserves-" Ian's answer faltered as his gaze slowly went to his nephew who was pale and trembling with his eyes closed and tear marks streaking down his face. He had never seen his nephew so scared before and even though Ian was mad his uncle/parenting instincts kicked in. That doesn't mean he wasn't pissed. "Why?" Was his question.

"B-b-b-beca-se…" It took a while for the word to get out of Alex's mouth through all the trembling, and even the one world was difficult to understand. Ian sighed again,

"Alex come on… I won't yell like that again. I will yell mind you, but not like that."

Alex opened his tear filled eyes then glanced at Tom who no longer looked scared but was smirking as the alarm clock went off telling everyone in the room it was midnight. The two friends looked at each other and then a smile appeared on Alex's face and the boy sat up looking cheerful and cheekily at his uncle.

"What?" Ian asked now looking confused.

At this the two boys started laughing and talking to each other,

"Bloody hell Alex that was so funny!"

"Your plan was ingenious Tom!"

"I swear I thought he was going to have a heart attack!"

The two boys continued to laugh until the very confused Ian finally stepped in, which was pretty ironic considering he had a broken foot.

"I don't understand…" Ian said, but this only fueled the boys' laughter. Ian glanced at the clock on the wall,

12:06 April 1st

He heard that the boys had stopped laughing so he turned to them to stare and they in turn were gazing at him with large smiles on their faces.

"Maybe this will teach you to always call at least once." Alex said with a smirk.

"I still don't get what's going on…" Ian muttered confused. He hated this, being left out of the loop and all.

The two boys rolled their eyes and shared a knowing look and turned back to Ian and Alex then opened his mouth and with a sly smirk said,

"April Fools Ian Rider."

Ian froze and stared at the two boys and couldn't seem to manage to finish a whole sentence,

"Wait so you… but then it… but why would you… I mean that's so… but why on earth… and…" Ian blinked for a second before closing his eyes, "You evil… little…buggers!"

Alex and Tom just laughed at the mans expense, using each other for support so neither of them would fall on their arses.

Ian Rider tried to be mad; he _really _did try to be mad. Yet with the two boys red faced and clutching each others sides in fear of falling over with laughter he couldn't help but grin. After being gone for so long and the way he had treated Alex he felt he did deserve it. Alex looked over at Ian and the two Riders smiled at each other then Ian grabbed Alex and pulled him into a hug watching Tom fall onto his arse. He then held the laughing blonde at arms length by his shoulders and Ian laughed slightly,

"That was a very clever little plot." Ian told his nephew,

"It was all Tom's idea." Alex said between his fits of laughter.

"But Alex," Ian said turning serious for only a moment. "I swear if I ever find out you got someone pregnant-"

Alex only rolled his eyes giving his uncle a smile. The two laughed at each other and Ian knew that he was forgiven. But Ian also knew that he would never again keep out of touch with his nephew, even if it was just one phone call.

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**_Hope you enjoyed the story. A bit comical there wasn't it. oh its always good to see Alex before his missions. _**

**_Reviews are welcome._**


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